I remember now that she was sat opposite me and I hastily drew this sketch of her in ink as we conversed. Then sometime later I took a photo of the sketch as it lay on my table, with my notebook alongside it, and used the SketchPad app to scratch in somedefining light and shade. But I forgot and only when my phone had to be restored to an earlier incarnation did it resurface. It is a fair likeness and a reminder to me to draw more.

This is my first attempt at aquatint, which is a process where you erode an etching using different amounts of time immersing it in acid, while protecting elements you want to remain untouched with painted on varnish. You also cover the etching in a fine dust of particles for further texture and definition.

It’s a nice mixture of crazy science and art. Though how successful the outcome you can judge.

I love elephants. I just love them. I bathed with one once, she was like a great gentle, playful giant and I was like a rubber duck to her, I suppose. Anyway, I did a sketch of an elephant and tried to transfer it into Lino, cutting away with a little chisel. Here’s a print of that: